Swan Song
by LoopingTheLoop
Summary: A new threat surfaces in Central City, and everyone is going to have to band together to get the best of this new musical adversary. (Set towards the beginning of season one.)
1. Chapter 1

It was a beautiful Tuesday afternoon in Central City. People were funneling to and from their respective destinations, and despite some of the strangeness that had been apparent in the city over the past year, everyone was business as usual.

The normal sound of the hustle and bustle of life filled the air outside the city's Second National Bank. A tall man with piercing blue eyes made his way through the front doors of the bank, attracting very little attention at first. He had an instrument case in one hand, and as soon as he got to the center of the large lobby he unpacked the contents. A battered and worn dark violin was now in his hands, and as he set his bow to the strings to draw out the first long note the whole room hushed, the occupants attention being drawn immediately.

The man holding the instrument was fairly unassuming aside from the fact that he was beginning a rendition of Ave Maria. As it went along the room went eerily silent aside from his playing. One of the guards approached him after a couple moments.

"Sir, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to do that somewhere else." The guard moved to put his hand on the other man but froze in place with a slight fluctuation of the melody. After a beat the guard pulled his gun out and brought it to his temple. The gunshot didn't phase a single person in the building as they all grew more enamored by the song.

The small crowd of people in the room had a very glazed look in their eyes, entranced by his playing up until the point where the music changed. As soon as it did there was a resounding sense of purpose every occupant of the room. The people behind the counters, those making deposits or withdrawals, even the guards, were all filing neatly into rows before the man as he played. One by one they sat down, seemingly frozen in place even after he stopped almost a minute later.

He replaced the violin within its case and moved back behind the counter, heading for the safe. He had a certain grace about him as he moved, almost with as much fluidity as he played. Every motion was deliberate, and he had a large duffle bag filled with cash within five minutes. Since it hadn't been a hostile robbery no alarms had been triggered yet, so he had no qualms about taking his time. After a short while he was out the door and into the crowds outside with the bag in one hand and his case in the other.

Back inside the bank a few of the guards were snapping out of the trance and realized what had happened, seeing their dead colleague splayed out on the floor. As more and more of the people regained their senses the police were called, and CCPD was undoubtedly going be on the scene in minutes.


	2. Chapter 2

Barry Allen was the fastest man in the world, and boy did he feel like it when he was on Cisco's treadmill. He wanted to go faster, he knew he had to, Doctor Wells made that pretty clear to him almost every five minutes lately. His arms and legs were a blur as yellow lightning crackled behind him.

When he ran it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. He'd been running practically his whole life, from bullies, catching trains, chasing after the truth behind what happened to his mother. Somehow none of that compared to how it felt to be moving at the speed of a bullet. He knew that Oliver had been right about the lightning bolt. Helping people, saving lives. It was what he lived for now.

"Hey there, Roadrunner," Cisco greeted the speedster. His hands were behind his back, he was obviously holding something. He had that satisfied grin plastered on his face he only got when he invented something new. "I have a surprise for you."

"Oh, yeah?" Barry slowed down gradually until he was at a normal speed, taking a moment to catch his breath. "Is it a pizza? I'm starving."

"Nope, I brought that, we figured you'd be hungry." Caitlin was only a half step behind Cisco with a small stack of pizza boxes in her hands. The three of them didn't hang out as much as she would like them to, so this seemed like as good as a time as any.

"Okay! Yeah, awesome!" Barry's face lit up with a smile at the prospect of spending time with his friends. The pizza wasn't a bad sight either. In a fraction of a second he'd snatched one of the boxes and taken a seat on the edge of the treadmill, happily taking a large bit of a slice. "So what's the surprise, Cisco?"

"Well, your suit wasn't exactly built for as high of speeds as you've been reaching lately, and I figure it might be holding you back a little." Cisco set a pair of boots that matched Barry's suit on the table.

"Are you saying something you made was flawed?" Barry's tone was joking but he was genuinely interested in whatever Cisco had done to his boots.

"What? No, not at all. This is just and improvement. An upgrade. None of my tech is flawed." It wasn't a secret to anyone that Cisco could get a bit defensive when it came to what he made.

"Barry's just kidding, aren't you Barry?" Caitlin looked at him expectantly as she sat down on a chair near the treadmill. Barry nodded, still smiling as he put away another slice of pizza. Cisco shrugged it off and gestured to the modified boots.

"So, before they were made out of heat resistance, shock absorbent, rubber polymer. It did the job, but I feel like it was weighing you down." Cisco seemed pretty proud, looking at the new boots like they were his firstborn child. "These new ones are silicon based, and exactly fourteen point two times more resistant to impact and equally as able to withstand high temperatures, all the while being almost two pounds lighter. I'm also testing out a new design for the tread, it should provide less friction and help you get to a higher speed faster."

"Woah, that's great! I can't wait to try them out! When'd you have time to do this?" Barry picked up one of the shoes, looking it over. It was way lighter, he could tell that already. "Thank you, Cisco. I really appreciate it."

"It's no big deal, really," Cisco pretended to wave off the compliment, but the smile on his face said otherwise.

"So, now that that's taken care of, I was thinking we should have some kind of game night. We've been doing a lot of really good work lately, so a fun night could be good for all of us." Caitlin said after she took a bite of her own slice of pizza. Cisco had sat down in the chair next to her and started on his own piece as well, nodding in agreement.

"I think that sounds really cool, though I never really saw you as the type to play a lot of games," Barry really liked the sound of that. Whether or not Wells would join them was another matter entirely.

"I'll have you know, I am an expert at Clue," Caitlin said matter-of-factly. Just then Barry's phone went of, and he instantly had it in his hand, answering the call.

"Okay, okay.. Yep. I'll be right there." After he hung up he let out a small sigh. "I have a crime scene to analyze. This was good though. I'll see you guys later."

"Later Barry," Cisco and Caitlin both gave a wave but he was already gone, leaving a brief trail of lightning behind that disappeared shortly after he did.

"So, guess we're gonna finish all this by ourselves," Cisco smiled, happily grabbing another piece.


	3. Chapter 3

Barry was able to get to the bank in less than a minute, despite it being on practically the opposite side of town in relation to S.T.A.R. Labs the place was crawling with police and witnesses alike, all of them trying to get a straight story of what happened earlier that afternoon. There was apparently only one casualty on the scene, and that was what Barry was standing in front of.

"Barry, what do you make of all this? It looks like the gunshot was self inflicted." Eddie was suddenly behind Barry, and he turned to look at him with a nod as he slipped on a pair of gloves.

"You're right about that," Joe was also on the scene now, and spoke while Barry was examining the area around the body. "Hey, Eddie, why don't you go help out with the witnesses?"

"Uh, yeah, no problem Joe." Eddie wasn't really sure why Joe always was ditching him when Barry was on the scene. What they talked about was a mystery to him, but Joe was his partner so he trusted that the man wasn't just sending him away from them for no reason. Barry have an off handed wave as he left, and turned to back to the body.

If someone would have blinked they'd have missed the blur of Barry rapidly examining the scene and gathering up a few small plastic bags of evidence. Joe had hardly been able to tell his foster son had even moved, the bags were set on the table like they had always been there. There was a couple strands of course, long, off-white hairs, a few chips of something amber colored, and some mud from the area near the table that had been tracked in from outside.

"We got hairs from the guy?" Joe asked as he picked up the baggy, but Barry shook his head.

"They don't look like normal human hairs, I'm guessing their from some kind of animal but I'm going to have to run a couple tests to find out what kind." Barry started putting the evidence away in his case, he was done within moments.

"So, we should probably take a look at the security footage." Joe said, leading the way back to the office with the monitors just off to the left of the entry way. A couple officers were in there but with a gesture from Joe they headed out, leaving him and the metahuman to examine the tapes.

The whole thing had only been about fifteen minutes in and out, only one man too. The guy had to have planned this in advance, because whatever he was using to keep the people from retaliating was just out of view of the cameras. He picked the perfect spot in the large room, taking advantage of the securities blind spots. All that they could tell was that everyone had been affected almost right away, and the only person who tried to stop the guy ended up shooting himself in the head.

"This guy knew what he was doing, shame we don't know how he did it." Joe thought out loud, glancing at Barry. "What do you think?"

"I can't be sure, but I have a feeling this isn't just a normal heist. Whatever he was carrying with him inside was what made all those people act like that. It's gotta be something weird." Barry crossed his arms, thinking. Joe raised an eyebrow. It seemed like a bit of a leap to assume it was his kind of weird. "Without sound we can't be sure exactly what happened, but I'll mention it to Doctor Wells and them next time I see them, hear what they think about it."

"Okay. If this guy is smart he won't show his face again now that the Flash is on the case." Joe joked, making Barry smile. "How are things going at S.T.A.R. Labs anyway?"

"Good, I was hanging out with Caitlin and Cisco before this, and that was really nice." Barry neglected to mention how much Wells was pushing him to get faster to Joe. It didn't seem like a huge deal after all. Wells was his mentor and he was pushing Barry. He looked up to the man so much, he tried to take the direction as best as he could.

"I'm glad to hear it. I should probably check back in with Eddie, the Chief'll be expecting a report about all this, and you have work to do now." Joe gave Barry a pat on the shoulder as he left the small room. Honestly, the whole metahuman thing had been a lot to take in, it still was. He was just glad Barry could help as many people as he'd been able to already.

"See you later, Joe," Barry's eyes shifted back to one of the screens before him. Watching over the whole thing once more before heading out as well. It wouldn't take long once he was back at his lab to get the evidence taken care of, so he'd do that first. He ducked out of the room and under the police tape stretched across the scene. After he was a good distance away from anyone to see, he was gone. Speeding back to his lab and to find out more about this case.


End file.
